Other views: Tea party's defeat of Cantor is your loss

Until Tuesday, tea party insurgents hadn't been doing very well this year in their crusade against congressional Republicans they deem too squishy. Last month, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky easily beat back a primary challenger from the right. Tea party candidates were also-rans in Georgia, Idaho, Oregon and elsewhere.

But the obituaries for the insurgency proved premature. Even as the tea party movement struck out Tuesday in its bid to oust Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of its obscure House candidates in Virginia hit a home run heard around the political world.

Challenger Dave Brat's stunning upset of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor touched off cheering on both sides. The insurgency got to savor the role of giant killer. Gleeful liberals saw a thorn in their side removed.

Actually, though, for people who care about getting things done in Washington, Cantor's defeat provides little cause for celebration. To the extent that the outcome feeds a perception among House Republicans that even the hint of cooperation with Democrats is hazardous to their careers, it is an ominous sign for the routine business of governing. On issues from immigration to raising the national borrowing limit, the votes of 36,000 people in Virginia's 7th district are likely to affect every American.

Why did Cantor lose? Some analysts pointed Wednesday to his support for legal status for children brought to the U.S. illegally, which gave Brat an opening to attack him for favoring "amnesty." Brat also scalded the incumbent for his responsible votes last year to increase the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown that tea party hard-liners engineered in a doomed attempt to repeal Obamacare.

Other analysts said Cantor was overly focused on his grander ambition to be House speaker, neglected his district, ran a bad ground campaign despite spending $5 million, or suffered at the polls because he was a Jew running against a devout Catholic who attributed his "unbelievable miracle" to divine intervention.

In the end, though, why Cantor lost isn't as important as the fact that he did. If the majority leader could lose, so could almost any congressional Republican - or so many will think. The lesson is that you can't be too careful, especially about any vote a tea party challenger could use to paint you as insufficiently conservative.

Tea party members have usefully focused attention on federal deficits and the national debt, but their fixation on political purity has made it harder to solve these and other problems. When voters elect politicians who promise never to compromise with the other party, they shouldn't be surprised when Washington is paralyzed.

In the long run, one way to help break this impasse is to end the sort of gerrymandering that allows hard-liners from both parties to win elections. Tea party candidates have fared better this year in deep red districts than in statewide elections.

Shorter term, the best hope is lawmakers with the backbone to do what's right for the nation, and voters who recognize that making deals is a necessary part of the democratic process.

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Other views: Tea party's defeat of Cantor is your loss

Until Tuesday, tea party insurgents hadn't been doing very well this year in their crusade against congressional Republicans they deem too squishy.